Sorry for the delay between posts; it’s been a rough month.

Today, I finally got around to reading the latest issue of Transportation Today (y’all know I like to keep up on my transit agency news) and discovered that some transit-friendly changes are in store for the neighborhood that boasts nation’s first mall.

King County is part of a four-way partnership to redevelop the area near the Northgate Mall in Seattle as a major urban center complete with transit, housing, commercial and open space. And, Metro Transit’s Northgate Transit Center is the lynchpin for connecting several separate projects together to make it all work.

The county plans to consolidate parking and move it much closer to the transit center, create a pedestrian walkway between the transit center and residential and commercial property in the area, and sell one of its old park-and-ride lots for redevelopment as a public park.

I don’t know much about parking and riding (obviously), but I’ve heard from car-owning types that the current location of the lots makes parking at Northgate and riding downtown a bit of a hassle. I do know much about getting around on foot, and I can tell you that the situation in the Northgate area is, well, less than ideal. I’m optimistic that these changes will make a difference.